Boys graduate high school at lower rates than girls, with lifelong consequences

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) They attend the same classes with access to the same programs and even come from the same families. But girls consistently are outperforming boys, graduating at higher rates at public high schools around the country.

- Carolyn Thompson

The gap between them is wide, often as wide as the achievement gap between students from affluent and low-income families, a problem that officials have tracked closely for years. But the reasons why boys are falling short are not as clear.

shutterstock.com Interviews with students, educators, and researchers point to several factors. Men generally can earn the same wages as women with less education.

But boys also are more likely to face suspensions or other discipline knocking them off track, and they don't pursue help as often when they face mental health challenges.

Some boys are fine when they first drop out, landing jobs and providing steady incomes. But over the long term, lacking a high school degree can hold men back. Studies show young men who drop out of high school earn less over their lifetimes and are more likely to end up in jail.

Bryant West was halfway through high school in Pascagoula, Mississippi, when he dropped out in 2020. Instead of learning algebra and other things he couldn't imagine ever needing, he felt his time was better spent working at Popeye's and on landscaping crews to help his mother with bills.

"I feel like it was pointless," he said.

West, 18, planned instead to earn his GED, which he received three years later, in September. "It was just another way that I wanted to do it," he said.